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RICHMOND, VA – Newly released figures from Virginia Health Information (VHI), the agency that gathers and reports health care data in the Commonwealth, yet again confirm the fact that many local hospitals across the state continue to struggle financially.

The numbers show that 27 percent of Virginia’s acute care, critical access, and children’s hospitals, and more than 43 percent of rural hospitals, operated in the red during 2015.

Those figures indicate a slight increase from 2014 data showing roughly 25 percent of overall hospitals, and 42 percent of rural hospitals, with negative operating margins. Data from the past two years reflect the continuation of a pattern consistently evid

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ROCKY MOUNT-Governor Bob McDonnell issued the following statement this afternoon following news that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has ruled the individual mandate provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional.

“I am pleased by today’s decision. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has correctly determined that the Commerce Clause provides no constitutional basis for a mandate that citizens must purchase a specific commercial product or face a penalty. The individual mandate provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act represents an unprecedented expansion of federal authority. In issuing their ruling, the court’s majority wrote that, “the individual mandate was enacted as a regulatory penalty, not a revenue-raising tax, and cannot be sustained as an exercise of Congress’s power under the Taxing and Spending Clause.” Itis clearly in direct contrast to the limited powers granted to our national government by the Constitution.

“The decision by the 11th Circuit is similar to the prior district court ruling on Virginia’s challenge to the federal healthcare law. The 6th Circuit reached a different conclusion, making it apparent that this issue must be heard in an expedited manner by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Department of Justice has resisted all prior requests to fast track this issue to the nation’s highest court. That is disappointing and I again urge the Department of Justice to call for expedited review. This law will impact every American. regardless of where one stands on the policy and constitutional questions at hand, all should at least be able to agree on the need for certainty, finality anduniform application of the law throughout the country.”